$1.4b Qld tourism plan approved

A $1.4 billion project thought to be Queensland's biggest tourism venture has been given conditional approval for the state's far north.

The Ella Bay integrated tourism and residential community, to be built near Innisfail, south of Cairns, has been approved by Queensland's coordinator-general, but the federal government still needs to sign off on it.

The proposal is for a 4.5-square-kilometre cattle property to be transformed into three resorts, four residential precincts, a retail village, an 18-hole golf course and a cassowary research and educational centre.